HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 8 am - Thursday - November 28th - Rancho Cucamonga, CA - 53° F, humidity 69%, wind 5 mph out of the north by northeast.....mostly blue skies today.  On this date in 2023 I was taking a long soak in one of the bath tubs at Glamis North Hot Springs.....

I did not bring my laptop with me on our Thanksgiving trip,  so I will not be posting again until we get home.  In the mean time HAPPY THANKSGIVING from the Hockwalds!!!

Thank for stopping by!

The Doors......

6:19 am - Wednesday - November 27th - TWW - 50° F, humidity 71° F, wind 8 mph out of the west by southwest......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 53° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE were throwing back a beer, or two at Hero's Restaurant in Riverside, CA.....

.....that mug must have held over 30 oz. of beer....lol!  Is that even legal?

Our main goal Tuesday was to hang the 3 shed doors left over from Monday.  You never know how a task may go when Hockwalds are involved, but on this occasion it went pretty smoothly.  Within an hour we had the doors hung, and all of the attendant hardware installed (handles, latches, etc.).....

The side door

The two front doors

......and with that we were finished with the construction of our new cedar shed.  She really is a beauty, and looks even better in person than on the Home Depot website!

While I was putting away the tools, TLE took some cardboard, and other paper products over to our 'burn barrel' to dispose of them.....

....once we were finished we headed into Seligman around 10:40 am to buy a few things at the hardware store, and at Family Dollar.  Then it was over to the Chevron station to top off the Expedition tank, and fill four 5 gallon gas cans.  We were back in 90 minutes, at which time I began to move the Bluetti solar generator station into the shed......

....it took me about an hour to drill a hole in the floor of the new shed for the 50 amp power cord to enter, and move the station.  Using that wood pallet for the base of the shed proved to be genius.  I only had to drill one hole in the floor of the shed just big enough for the 50 amp power cord from the Newell to fit.  The big hole I drilled to get the male end of the cord through was in the wood pallet for the main plug to fit through, then I drilled the smaller hole for the cord, then removed that floor board, installed the cord, then reinstalled the floorboard around it.  The other cords (solar and charger) fit between the floor boards, so no holes had to be cut in the shed floor for them....just in the wood pallet (three holes in all) beneath the shed floor to feed those cords into the shed.  The Bluetti solar charging station only takes up a small corner of the shed, so there is room for a lot more stuff in there.....

I only had to drill one hole in the shed floor itself...just big enough for the diameter of the cord

The final setup

......once that was done, TLE and I turned our collective attention to topping off our fresh water tank, the refilling the IBC water tote, which we accomplished in about 45 minutes. 

If that had been the end of my day it would have been nice, but I still had to keep a promise I made to Matt (handyman) as he was leaving Monday.....he asked me to reinstall the insulation around some of the pipes in the water pump room.  That took me another hour, and by time I finished that, then buttoned up the pump room, and put away the tools I had used it was after 4 pm......I was one tired puppy.

We'll be heading out for SoCal to have Thanksgiving with our kids in a couple of hours (today, Wednesday), so it is time to wrap up this latest post, and put the final things into my suitcase, before jumping into the Beetle for our 6 hour drive.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Manually speaking.....

 7:06 am - Tuesday - November 26th - TWW - 45° F, humidity 60%, wind 10 mph out of the south......cloudy today with a forecast high of 62° F.  On this date in 2017 I was taking a mountain bike ride near Desert View (Grand Canyon) on my Intense 5.5 mountain bike....

.....the view this morning....

TLE and I were on the shed building job between 8:30 and 9 am Monday.  We really wanted to make a big dent in getting it built, and hoped we might be half way done by the end of the day.  This is the biggest construction project I've ever undertaken.  It comes with a large 56 page instruction booklet (8½" x 11"), and believe me when I say this, we could not have put it together without that well written instruction manual....

....with age comes wisdom, most of the time, and in my case, with age comes the acknowledgement that one must read the instructions to complete most any project successfully.  With TLE reading each step of construction process to me we began to put the shed together.  There was a lot of prep work on many of the preassembled panels, but at last we were able to raise the first wall.....

....once we got the first wall screwed into place, the process began to accelerate.....

....and soon the shed began to take shape.......

....we took a short break around noon time, but by 2:30 pm we had the shed assembled, with the exception of hanging the three doors.....

Doors inside the shed awaiting installation on Tuesday

This shed has a side compartment, which appealed to us....TLE can store a lot of her gardening supplies in there

The other thing we liked about this shed is that is has a floor, and a metal roof

....frankly, I have to admit, the instruction manual was very detailed, and well written.  Between the written explanations, and well done diagrams (pictures) we made very few mistakes that were not easily correctible.  If we got confused about the next step it was just a matter of rereading the instructions, and examining the diagrams to clarify the next step.  We managed to get well past half done, and really only have the three doors (two front, and one side) to hang on Tuesday, and it is ready for occupancy.

In all it took us 6 hours Monday (excluding the floor assembly, which we did Sunday) to get the shed 90% complete.  We're looking forward to finishing the job on Tuesday, and then moving in our Bluetti solar charging station.  I do not remember sharing the cost of this 6' x 3' shed, but it was $999 at Home Depot.  The best deal we had found, and we'd been looking for almost a year.  Comparable sheds at other retailers run 2-3 times this cost.

Oh, by the way, Matt (the handyman) returned with his assistant, Dustin, Monday morning to finish running the new water line from the storage tanks to the house, and by 1 pm they had restored water service, and pressure to the house for the first time in a few months!  Now those aforementioned dominos will begin to tumble quickly!

It was too breezy for a sunset fire, and frankly, there was not much of one until almost  6 pm when I snapped these pictures...

Thanks for stopping by!

Half day off.....

7:03 am - Monday - November 25th - TWW - 34° F, humidity 72%, wind 5 mph out of the southeast....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 60° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were boondocking with our kids at Ocotillo Wells (near the Salton Sea) for the Thanksgiving weekend....

 .....I think we had 10 RVs there that weekend.  The view this morning.....

.....looks like more high cloudiness to go along with that forecast 60° F.

I have developed a sort of morning routine here at TWW....I'm most always the first one up, and my task is to 'light the fires' so to speak.  First I turn on our gas oven to kind of take the chill off the Newell interior, without any noise, then hop back into bed.  Once the temp has risen a few degrees I get out of bed again, and go outside to turn on the big Champion generator to power our charger/converter, then turn on the three gas furnaces.  Why, do you ask?  Well, part of the service I will be performing on the three furnaces will be to refresh the 12 volt electrical connections for each furnace, which seem to be less than 100% after 44 years.  When the voltage to the furnaces is not high enough, due to the compromised 12 volt connections, they squeal like 'stuck pigs'.  Firing up the Champion generator boosts the voltage to the heaters sufficiently to prevent the irritating squealing.  Once I refresh the connections this should not be an issue anymore....that's my yet to be proven theory.

Next I check the charge on the Bluetti battery bank, and if low, I turn on the Honda EU2000i to give them a boost before the sun gets high enough to begin charging them via the solar panels.  By this time the Newell interior is quite hospitable, and I can make some coffee, take my daily pill ration, and get to writing my latest blog post.  TLE is usually stirring by this point, and joins me in the Salon to welcome in a new day at TWW.

Our main focus of Sunday was to begin the assembly of our new cedar shed.  Don't you love the smell of cedar?  When we opened up the box containing all that cedar on Saturday the fragrance was almost overwhelming....like opening a new bag of coffee beans.  Monday morning, with the assistance of Charles and Phyllis, we unloaded the box....

One of the rear panels for the shed

The freshly assembled shed floor

....our first task was to assemble the floor (above) of the shed, which went pretty smoothly.  The wood pallet to which the shed box was strapped, is really quite nice, with pretty nice plywood, so TLE and I are inclined to place it under the newly assemble shed floor.... 

In this picture you can see we have placed the large wooden pallet under the shed floor we assembled Sunday

....Charles and Phyllis left for their return drive to Phoenix while we were assembling the floor.  By the time we finished the floor, which was our goal for Sunday, it was after 12 pm.  I spent the rest of the afternoon watching NFL football, which I haven't done in a while.  It was nice to have half a day off work.  We'll get back to the shed assembly first thing Monday.  Our goal is to have it mostly assembled by Monday afternoon, applying the finishing touches on Tuesday. We'll see how that plays out in real time....lol.

The afternoon was delightful....the Dallas Cowboys broke a 5 game losing streak, and the K.C. Chiefs barely won their game with a last second field goal to win by 3. My Denver Broncos won their game over the Raiders, and Seahawks bested the Cardinals.  Regrettably, my L.A Rams got clobbered by the Eagles to end the NFL festivities for Sunday.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset, which was not viewed via a sunset fire....too breezy for that.  I did venture out for a few minutes to memorialize the light effects....

....and thus another TWW day came to an end.  

Thanks for stopping by!

One thing leads to another.....

7:44 am - Sunday - November 24th - TWW - 44° F, humidity 43%, wind 10 mph out of the south.....high, thin clouds today with a forecast high of 57° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner with family in Ontario CA at the home of our youngest child, Tim, and his soon to be wife, Laila....

Tim and Laila in the foreground

Before we could begin to put together the new cedar shed we bought, we needed, or I should say, wanted a foundation to keep it off the ground.  We hadn't given this part much thought, and didn't buy any concrete blocks for that purpose, so what to do?  Well, as we have said before, "the land provides".  The large bird cage sitting in the middle of the area where the Bluetti charging station is located, sits upon 5 large concrete blocks, which would be perfect.  All we had to do was jack up the bird cage, one side at a time, remove the large blocks, then replace them with smaller blocks, also provided by the land.

I do, however, get ahead of myself.  Before we could do any of that, we needed to move the current charging station toward the Newell about 6' to clear the area where the blocks would be placed, and leveled, so that was our first task of the day. Once we had the wire cage in which the Bluetti batteries reside repositioned, I decided to tighten up the wood frame, which I've been meaning to do since we first decided to use it.  Once done with that I decided to continue on to the deck for the house, which also needed to be tightened (it's held together mostly with long wood screws).  Suddenly it was almost noon time and we hadn't begun to set the concrete blocks, and level them.  It's funny how easily I can be diverted from the main task of the day, but the deck was in serious need of attention.  Each time you grabbed one of the handrails to walk up the stairs, they would wobble in your hand, which does not instill a lot of confidence....lol....now they are solid!

We took a break from our labors a little after 12 pm, then began the aforementioned task of jacking up the bird cage to retrieve the large concrete blocks, replacing them with smaller red clay bricks.....

....once the concrete blocks were liberated, we placed them in the area where the new shed will sit, and do its job of protecting the Bluetti battery bank from the wintery elements.  Once we had the blocks set, and leveled, we opened up the large box containing the the shed to find the instructions so I could spend some time reading them before beginning the assembly on Sunday.....

.....while TLE went back inside I headed out to the garage to begin installing the new windshield Charles and Phyllis purchased for the Yamaha Rhino.  It seemed pretty straight forward, but it was not.  It took me over an hour to install the rubber gasket on the bottom of the lower half of the windshield, which must be done before it can be installed.  In the end I was victorious, and with Charles' help (oh, by the way, we were expecting them) we installed the lower portion of the bi-fold windshield, and then called it a day.  The top part looks pretty easy to install, but we shall see....lol....

The top piece of the bi-fold winshield

.....while I was working on installing the windshield, TLE was inside the Newell making dinner for us, Charles and Phyllis.  It was a spinach/tortellini soup, which was delicious.  We sat at the dining table in the house eating, talking and imbibing a little vino.  And thus ended another day at TWW.  We got a lot done, and can now begin the assembly of the new cedar shed!

Thanks for stopping by!

Time to shed a little light upon the subject.....

7:44 am - Saturday - November 23rd - TWW - 41° F (a warm morning!), humidity 21%, wind 8 mph out of the south by southeast.....high, thin clouds today with a forecast high of 66° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I had just arrived at Ocotillo Wells (Salton Sea) to spend Thanksgiving with our kids....we were the first to arrive....they all arrived the next day.....

We ordered a 6' x 3' cedar shed from Home Depot on November 9th with a promised delivery date to the Kingman Home Depot no later than December 3rd.  Much to our surprise, we got notice it had arrived in Kingman on the 20th of November!  We already had plans to head into Seligman the next day to obtain our PO Box, so we notified them we would be there Friday, the 22nd to retrieve it.  Our plan was to be on the road Friday morning by 9 am, but we didn't leave the property until close to 9:40 am.  Part of the reason for our delayed start was getting one of Charles and Phyllis' trailers hooked up to the Expedition.....we couldn't seem to find the correct keys to unlock the trailer, but after a call to Charles we got it sorted out, and were on our way.  We arrived without incident in Kingman around 11 am.

It took a while to get the box from the warehouse to the trailer, but by 11:50 am it had been loaded......

.....it's been 6 weeks since I last had my ears lowered, and there just happened to be a Sport Clips in the same parking lot as Home Depot, so I walked over there to see if I could get in, and was advised there was a 40 minute wait, so I left my name, and headed (with TLE, of course) to Autozone to buy some windshield wipers for the Expedition, and a hand operator oil pump to remove the excess oil from the Jeep crankcase.  While I was doing that TLE picked up 10 gallons of filtered water from the vending machine in front of Smith's Supermarket....we got back to Sport Clips in exactly 40 minutes.  Madeleine was my stylist, and she not only gave me a great haircut, but trimmed my beard, eyebrows, ears, and my neck under my beard.  She then shampooed my hair, whilst I reclined in a vibrating chair....all of that for $29!

Once the haircut was done, we were on our way home with our new cedar shed.  We arrived home without incident around 2:30 pm....

.....and there is the shed, still on the trailer, awaiting assembly!  This is what it will look like when fully assembled.  The new shed will house our Bluetti solar charging station to keep it out of elements this winter, but there will be room for TLE's gardening stuff.....

....for dinner TLE reheated the other half of by Road Kill Cafe burger from Thursday, along with the left over fries.....

....it was just as good as it was Thursday.  It's nice when a $45 lunch provides two meals for the price of one....makes that $45 price tag a little more palatable.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the price....if the food is great, I'll pay the price.  It's just that the inflation we've been beat up with the past 4 years has really increased the cost of food in general, and really increased the cost of dining out, especially in the more rural areas.

We decided to enjoy another sunset fire...the sun sets now at 5:20 pm, and rises around 7:15 am, so we've got less than 10 hours of daylight each day..... 

....when we first arrived back on October 2oth the sun was setting just below the right arrow in the picture above, and now it is setting below the left arrow in the same picture.  By the way, here is my new coif.....

....we had a very subtle sunset, but watching any sunset with TLE makes it amazing.....

....and with that another day at TWW came to an end.

Thanks for stopping by!